Crucial
by Carmabaeji - Lively Aria
Summary: Season two, based on 'all is fair in love and war' - my version of the season 1 finale. Hope you enjoy - I'm afraid there's no summary so I don't spoil it!
1. 08:00 to 09:00

'Crucial' by Aria  
  
Spoilers - All of season one, including my version of the last fifteen minutes of 24. You can find it at livelyaria.bravepages.com/love and war.html or on FF.net somewhere.  
  
Summary - Wait and see...  
  
Author's Notes - Stole the idea of a country called Qumar from the West Wing. Couldn't think up another name, and Fauxraqistan would have been too funny. I'm taking a cue from the show and taking a few minutes out every hour.  
  
Never fear - there will be a bathroom scene, don't worry for all you people who were just dying to get to the loos, I don't know how I'll top 24 though - first Jamie does spy work in there, then Paula washes her hands and recently George took his pills - What will they think up next?  
  
Rating - Same as the show  
  
  
  
8-9pm  
  
  
  
Basement office - the Pentagon, 11:00:02  
  
Rakima Kasrati pressed the headpiece closer to his ear. He wanted to make sure that he hadn't made a mistake.  
  
Rakima was always careful with his work; he was an Arabic translator for the US military - defence and intelligence. At the moment he was working on a conversation that a man named Kafir Mari had had with some of his connections in a convenience store in Al-Hakut. Mari was a known terrorist and Rakima didn't like what he was hearing, it sounded like the translation his lieutenant had worked on was right, and they were all in for a world of trouble.  
  
Rakima closed the folder in front of him and signed the bottom of the file. He pressed a button on the underside of the desk.  
  
Private MacDoughall entered the room quickly and he handed him the file. "Call the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs - he'll need to see that right away - tell him it's a code red assessment."  
  
MacDoughall nodded and saluted and left the room.  
  
  
  
Los Angeles, 08:03:01  
  
Jack Bauer dropped himself unceremoniously onto the couch and let out a loud groan. He'd run an extra mile today than usual, deciding he'd rather drown a few more calf muscles in lactic acid than return to the house an few minutes earlier. Especially not today.  
  
He took in a few staggered breaths. He'd always thought that when you were doing ten miles, it wouldn't matter if you did one more. It'd taken him three more minutes than he wanted - he noted, glancing at the sports timer setting on his watch and resetting it angrily. He turned it back to the timer setting and took in the time and sadly - the date, before he let his arm drop again.  
  
He was wheezing a little - he didn't like that.  
  
Jack bent forward into the sunlight from the bay doors to take off his shoes, and as he noticed the dampness, his socks. He let the shoes drop and bundled the socks in his hands, flopping, once again back on the couch.  
  
His front doorbell rang suddenly and he glanced over at the door, up a step and to his right behind him. He couldn't see the ringer without x-ray vision, but he could see the dividing door and the thick Mexican door.  
  
Having now repaid his oxygen debt Jack rose to his feet, hoping to make it to the door before the visitor rung the bell again. He took the step up and jogged the three feet to the door, pulling it open as he saw his visitor turn to look at the front garden.  
  
His visitor turned to him just after he'd taken in her appearance - a shorter than normal black suit skirt and a green sweater, sleeveless with a 'v' neck, showing off her neck. He imagined the suit jacket was in the car. She rarely came to work in anything less than a suit, always looking professional.  
  
She took a moment to look at him and then muttered a breathy "Hi."  
  
"Hi." He replied. Not realising that he was blocking the doorway.  
  
"Mind if I come in?" Nina asked, lifting a bundle of files out from under her arm. It was only then that he noticed them.  
  
Jack slid to the side, and then walked back into the house leaving Nina to shut the door behind her. They'd spent a few hours working at her house last night - "Didn't we finish all those last night?" He queried, heading back into the lounge area. He passed the remote control on the way and switched the tv. It automatically turned to CNN from yesterday morning - he'd gone straight to bed after returning from Nina's last night.  
  
"Yes, but we didn't sign any of the papers, and I need to get them off to Division by 10, so."  
  
Jack nodded in response and gestured to the chairs, tossing the remote onto a seat and heading off to the kitchen. "Have a seat - can I get you something, OJ, coffee.?"  
  
"A cup of coffee would be great, thanks." Nina muttered, taking a seat. She dropped the files on the table and reached down to move a pair of muddy running shoes.  
  
08:07:43 James Codonn collected his tray from the tray-spot and looked down the queue of cadets, or potential young cadets. All of a sudden his shirt didn't seem starched or ironed well enough and his suit wasn't smart enough. His worries about his physical prowess weren't even possible to be put into words, but he knew that Darren, whose surname he didn't know, was the California Thai Boxing Champion, and only a year older than he.  
  
James settled his mind on the problems he could sort, and straightened his back to get a better look at the food that the chefs were serving up. The bacon looked nice today, but James knew better than to load himself with fats - he had to eat a balance of complex and simple carbs if he wanted to have a peak energy level just before lunch for the aptitude tests.  
  
A solid finger poke in the middle of his back caused him to turn and his vision trailed off just before he noticed the oatmeal and porridge at the end of the line. He turned to see the gorgeous and friendly Kimberly.again he lost the surname, but he knew the girl.  
  
"Hey." She greeted.  
  
"Hi." He replied, turning his back on his search for decent food and the Thai boxer. She offered him a big smile. "You sleep well?" He asked her.  
  
She nodded happily and grabbed herself a tray. After a brief wrestle with the mechanism, she managed to collect a clean one, and collected a hot plate.  
  
Kim, James had noticed, didn't stick with any sort of diet he could think of. She ate whatever interested her, even if she didn't know the taste. James wished he could be that adventurous. He wished he was that confident in his abilities.  
  
"God, I'm so nervous about today." Kim confided. They shuffled along the line and he ignored the woman serving cooked fatty food until it was his turn to say 'no thanks'.  
  
"Don't be, I'm sure you'll be fine." They'd gone for a run together a day earlier. She'd been a little out of breath, but then she wasn't expected to do as well as he. The women's criteria were calculated differently.  
  
"You barely broke a sweat yesterday." She commented.  
  
"Yeah, but I'm supposed to score higher than you." James consoled her. "Don't worry about it - that was a pretty brisk pace." Kim ordered her breakfast, a plate of fats and far too complex carbs. He was concerned. "You know you'll get sluggish - you won't be able to burn that."  
  
Kim laughed at him. "I'm famished - and I'm not eating that slop." She nodded towards the soup steamer worth of porridge that they were approaching, she'd asked him a few days ago if he could still taste the previous night's soup in his breakfast, and to be honest - he wasn't entirely sure he couldn't.  
  
"If you ate something like porridge and bread your body would break it down slower and you'd have more energy over a longer period. Chances are your body will deposit that instantly.especially if you have toast." He pointed out as she collected a slice of bread from the rack. ".which gives it instant nutrients so it ignores the fat."  
  
Kim smirked and then pushed her tongue into the space under her lips, and groaned at him, and then turned away from the counter to find them a seat, just as Darren Marlowe, the Thai Boxer, shoved a ladle of oats into his bowl.  
  
08:12:46 "And then the press conference that the first lady scheduled on health care is at three-twenty." Sarah finished as she glanced up at the President. He nodded at someone behind her and she angled her neck enough to see Lynn Kresgy standing in the doorway, waiting for entry.  
  
"The first lady's press conference, sir - I thought we agreed that you were going to send Michelle?" Lynn interrupted, having over heard the end of the conversation. She rounded the sofas and took a seat on the edge of the white linen, on the table closest to the President.  
  
"This is a join initiative, Lynn, I'm not ruining it by letting my petty."  
  
"Sir, they aren't petty - as soon as Mrs Palmer says something about the dairy tax, it'll just incense you and things will get out of hand." Lynn argued.  
  
"Things will not get out of hand."  
  
"Sir."  
  
"I'm telling you, Lynn, as an intelligent adult," he stood, slightly angry moving round the chair and back to the psychological protection of the desk, "I am capable of containing myself around my ex-wife - for the good of the country."  
  
Lynn stood too - despite the fact that her yoghurt breakfast wasn't really enough, no one sat whilst he stood. She nodded wearily.  
  
Palmer collected a pen from the desk and rotated it between his fingers, it was an anniversary pen, but it wasn't something that they commented on. He looked her in the eye - "Besides, even she knows - I'm the one who gets to be in charge." He laughed, sincere and deep, and Lynn smiled in response.  
  
Sarah was still standing in the corner of the room. "Sorry, if that's all Sarah, you can go."  
  
The young woman nodded and left the room. Lynn moved to stand squarely in front of the President's desk, especially as he sat down. "So Lynn, did you come in purely to criticize me, or was there a point to this little visit?"  
  
"No, the Joint Chiefs need you in the situation room."  
  
Palmer ran a hand down his chin.  
  
08:18:13 Jack signed another file, and once again he paused long enough for Nina to close it and add it to the pile on the end of her knees. Jack watched as the paper moved onto her lap, letting his eyes slide down the papers and onto the skin of her thighs, and then completing his circle back to the next signature box, she placed a finger on the small square, and he added his signature to the box below hers.  
  
His eyes escaped the pile and wandered to the television. The international news segment was on, at the moment a well-powdered woman was talking about a fire in a police station somewhere in northern England. Nearly ten people had died, including a few police officers and a teenage boy who'd been brought in after stealing from a nearby department store. They were interviewing his mother.  
  
"Jack?" Nina asked.  
  
He physically shook his head and lowered it back to look at the manila folder in front of him, as he signed he noticed Nina's hand reach to the corner of the page and ruffle the pages. "Only a few more to go." She muttered.  
  
He nodded wearily, he wasn't sure if it would be better on him if he did monotonous tasks all day or if he tested his mind non-stop until he went to bed. He didn't even know if he was going to talk to Nina about it, although his typical practice would have been not to.  
  
She was right, and three signatures - maybe only a minute and a half down the road, they were finished. She collected the last file onto her lap and patted them straight, whilst he capped the pen, still leant forward on his haunches.  
  
Nina put the folders onto the table and leant back in the chair, she watched him for a minute, a thoughtful look on her face. He could feel her eyes on his shoulder, his neck, his hands. "Spit it out, Nina." He grumbled, not moving.  
  
"I was about to ask you the same thing, Jack." She said in a light tone that he both hated and loved at the same time.  
  
He laughed, rotating to look at her but moving ever so slightly away from him.  
  
"You've been quiet, cold, isolated - not just today, or even last night. I've been noticing it for a while now." Nina told him.  
  
He noticed she said 'I' and was thankful for that - he didn't like the idea that he'd been broadcasting his unease. It was only Nina who'd picked up on it when he and Teri had separated, nearly three years ago now. "It's just going to eat at you until you tell someone, it might as well be me." she quietened for the last phrase, and he caught her eyes for a moment - holding the gaze until she looked away.  
  
She watched the manila folders for a period of mutual silence, and he regarded her face. She'd always been there for him. He told her that, catching her by surprise.  
  
She gave him a look of puzzlement. "Even when I didn't believe you, you've just been around for me." They didn't talk about that day anymore, but they both knew when he meant. "I appreciate it." He told her quietly, placing a hand on hers where it played with the soft couch fabric. She stopped instantly, and Jack wondered how hot he was from his run.  
  
Nina knew when not to talk, and so she didn't say anything when he sat in silence, still for a few seconds. "Today is." He shook his head and laughed bitterly, "Would have been - Teri's fortieth birthday - we said we'd pause for a few years, so I could catch up, and then we'd celebrate forty-one." He smiled. "My computer told me about it, and the strange thing is - if it hadn't done - I wouldn't have remembered."  
  
Nina's hand turned in his and a finger stroked the skin inside his wrist. If she remembered anything from their relationship, she'd have known that was a sensitive spot. He met her eyes.  
  
"I guess in the last few days I've been realising how much I've moved on." Nina collected their hands off his sofa and brought them onto her lap, still stroking her thumb over the two tendons in the centre of his wrist.  
  
"Yeah." She whispered quietly, as he moved towards her on the sofa.  
  
08:24:13 Kim smiled at James as she walked in the door at the side of the room. She had arrived with literally a minute to spare, she'd gotten lost on her way to find room 127, every guard she'd passed had been on sentry duty, and most had refused to even give her directions, save the guy at the bottom of the stairs.  
  
He patted the seat next to himself and Kim wandered over, taking the seat between him and a girl from San Diego whom she'd gotten to know well over the last few days - they shared a room.  
  
Lieutenant Bray - a woman in her early forties, the same one who'd given them a talk last night - took her place at the small lecture pulpit at the front of the assembled group - 30 or so eighteen to twenty year olds. She had jet-black hair with a red tinge to it - hair dye, but probably to cover the grey at her roots rather than to alter her natural colour, and harsh grey eyes. She wore a wedding ring and her dog tags as her only jewellery with her dress uniform, which comfortably flattered her padded hips. "Right, ladies and gentlemen - you are assembled here today because you want to join the United States Air Force. You've completed examinations, interviews - you've been recommended for selection, and so here you are."  
  
She looked up from her black leather folder and offered the cadets a smile. "In a little over thirty minutes you'll be completing your tasks - the physical and mental challenges that will test you abilities as teams, as leaders - to see if you have what it takes to become an officer in the United States Air Force."  
  
08:29:34 "Almeida." Tony answered his phone, not even looking up from the screen in front of him to collect the small black receiver. He dropped a sheet of paper on his lap and grabbed his mug of coffee - leaning back in the chair as he waited for the caller to speak.  
  
"Hi, Tony it's Michelle - will you hold for AD Connor." Came a softly spoken voice out of the black tube.  
  
"Yeah sure." Tony took the brief silence to take a sip of his coffee. Connor didn't usually have to call CTU himself - or rather, he wouldn't speak to anyone here himself, especially not a lowly floor dweller like Tony, they'd always want Jack or Nina.  
  
"Tony?"  
  
"Yes, Sir." He sat up as he spoke.  
  
"Where's Jack?"  
  
"He's not on, yet, sir."  
  
"Nina?"  
  
"Should be here in a half hour."  
  
"Hmmm," Tony could hear a faint tapping of a pen on a desk - he could imagine the man sitting in his darkened office talking to him via the light of a desk lap. "I need you to call all your people, get everybody in - I need to brief the senior staff as soon as possible."  
  
Tony nodded, "Right away, sir. What should I tell them is happening?"  
  
"I'll be briefing you at CTU LA in approximately a half hour - I'm catching a chopper in a few minutes." He heard a phone ringing sound in the background. "Just tell them to get there."  
  
08:33:24 Amir Halim rotated the cigarette so he held it between the pads of his index and forefingers to give him a better grip as he took the last drag on his camel cigarette. He chucked it to the ground and stepped on it, ensuring it was fully out before he rolled his suitcase over it and took a look at the queues of traffic.  
  
His ride still wasn't here.  
  
He settled the suitcase back on its legs and grabbed the cigarette carton from his right pocket - he pulled out a cigarette and then the lighter, which was stowed in the space created by the four cigarettes he'd smoked in the last few minutes.  
  
Where was his ride?  
  
Amir inserted the cigarette between his lips and clutched the packet under his arm as he flicked the coil and hoped for a flame. One came, and he lit his cigarette. He held it in his mouth for the first few succulent puffs, allowing him time to stow his packet and lighter back in his pocket.  
  
A tan coloured Buick pulled up to the loading zone in front of him, and his colleague Reza climbed out of the drivers' side, slamming the door. He motioned for Amir to follow him, and he forced the cigarette to stay between his lips as he rolled his suitcase over to the car.  
  
Reza opened the passenger side door to the back seat. "Will you put that out!" He growled. "I don't want to take any chances."  
  
08:38:45 Jack and Nina writhed on the sofa, having blocked out the sound of the news broadcast. Jack's house phone was at a much higher volume to start with, so when it rang it jolted them. Jack raised himself up on his forearms and looked quizzically down at her.  
  
Nina shut her eyes and took a long breath, opening them far more suddenly than she'd expected when she felt his arm move away from them, to reach for the phone, she gripped his forearm and spoke quietly. "Leave it."  
  
Jack didn't speak, or move.  
  
"Leave it." She said a little more assertively sliding her arm to his shoulder.  
  
08:40:47 Palmer stood at the head of the table, signalling the end of the meeting. "I want those satellite photos by the end of the day - if this is even a possibility I want to know about it." He ordered the assembled men, and then stepped around his seat. He always waited for Lynn before leaving the situation room. She came to his side and they walked to the exit.  
  
"I want to talk to the director of the FBI." David ordered her, as they walked to the stairwell - back to their retrospective offices. "I want to know exactly what he's got on this already - I don't care if it's just a list of the agencies involved - I want to know where he is on this."  
  
Lynn nodded, mumbling her standard agreement to him.  
  
"And have Brayburn meet me in the oval office as soon as possible." She nodded.  
  
"I'll get Sarah on it." It was really his secretaries' job to call and make the meetings.  
  
"No, I want you to do it - secure line if necessary. I want him to know everything we do." David's secret service agents watched the more ditsy members of staff, they had a tendency to walk to close sometimes.  
  
"Sir, you may need to consider calling the FAA and asking them to up security." Lynn suggested.  
  
David nodded, "Sarah can set up the call for me."  
  
08:46:03 Kim rose to her feet and made a beeline for the coffee machine in an adjacent corridor. James came out after her, and shortly afterwards her roommate - Susanna. They worked their way around the other casually chatting cadets to the hot beverage machine, and joined the short queue.  
  
"I've been dying for a hot chocolate all the way through that." Admitted Susanna.  
  
"Oh my god!" Kim pointed to herself - "So was I, I think it's all that chocolate you were eating in the room." They laughed together, and then turned to see James' expression - then laughing because of his disinterest.  
  
Susanna loved eating chocolate, but she had a rake thin figure, gorgeous long black hair, and contrary to the popular housewives tale, perfect alabaster skin.  
  
They moved forward a step. "I don't know if I can stand to be bored like that again." Whispered Susanna, who'd previously professed worries that there were cameras in the shower judging her bathing technique as a method of assessing her abilities as an office.  
  
"I know!" Kim joked. "And did you hear all the security stuff - If you notice an abandoned bag or anyone looking suspicious."  
  
"Don't be a hero." Susanna added when Kim left her a gap to finish. It was followed by happy laughter that turned a few heads.  
  
"And we're on code black too - there's no concern.surely if there is a concern then we shouldn't be here anyway. We're civilians at the moment damn it!" Kim laughed.  
  
"And 'code black' what on earth are the other codes anyway?" Susanna wondered.  
  
"Oh there's a notice about that downstairs." James added, his first entry to their conversation. "By the door."  
  
"Really I didn't see that." Susanna commented.  
  
Kim nodded, "Well you'll have to point it out to us on the way out this afternoon then - won't you, James?"  
  
08:52:34 Jack gathered his clothing enough to find a pair of boxers and then piled them out of the way of Nina's search, into the ruffled seat cushions. He pulled them on and helped Nina with the remainder of her own search - letting her dress herself until she came to the last few buttons on her shirt. Then he stood and helped her with the small pieces of stone.  
  
She watched him as he performed the careful task, meeting his eyes when he finished and accepting his kiss.  
  
They smiled at each other as the kiss was broken, and then she ran her fingers through her hair. "Do I look presentable?" She asked. She had to be at work in less than ten minutes - it wasn't really a realistic goal, but she knew her boss would understand.  
  
He nodded, and she smoothed her skirt and shirt over her limbs.  
  
"I really have to go." She muttered after another lazy kiss.  
  
"Yeah." Jack commented. "I guess I'll see you when I get there."  
  
Nina nodded, and pulled away from their embrace, collecting the folders on the table and then heading for the door. "Bye." She called back to him as she grasped the knob.  
  
Jack settled back onto the couch, collecting his bundle of clothing and tugging it into his lap. He separated his hands from the pile and looked at his hands. With a sudden bolt of courage he tugged his wedding band off of his finger, and after reading the inscription for the first time in years - he placed it in the centre of the coffee table.  
  
08:55:34 The desert dust blew all over the tarmac around them - them being the sole drivers along this stretch of road. Amir hadn't really been paying attention to the road - but he was getting bored. Almost as if sensing the unease, Reza started speaking. "It should be just over the hill."  
  
Amir followed the horizon, and when they passed over it he noticed a heavy goods lorry parked off the road on the baked red clay. Reza pulled his car up to the lorry, stopping in front of it, at an angle. He jumped out of the car at the same time as the people in the cab of the lorry.  
  
"You're late." This new man pointed out to them.  
  
"Yeah." Reza replied. Amir had called whilst at the airport to report on the tardiness of his ride.  
  
"We've been waiting - they couldn't complete the next stage until you arrived." He spoke to Amir this time.  
  
Reza looked around him. He could see the heat emanating off the ground.  
  
"It won't happen again." The lorry driver muttered, pulling out his glock and shooting Reza in the mid-chest, once, twice - he dropped to the sand. He glanced at Amir. "Come on, let's go."  
  
08:58:45 Tony waited in the shade on the roof for the chopper to land. It was kicking up all the stray grit and sand deposited on the roof by the showers and broken up by the tarmac.  
  
The blades stopped spinning once the whirly-bird had settled, obviously remaining to escort Connor to where ever he needed to go after meeting with them. Tony jogged to the door as he noticed Michelle - one of Connor's aides step out the copter.  
  
Connor followed shortly after her and didn't bother waiting for the other agents to dismount - heading straight to Tony and to the roof access points.  
  
"Mr Connor." began Tony.  
  
"Where are Jack and Nina?" He asked immediately.  
  
"I've been unable to contact them." Tony informed him.  
  
Connor paused his speedy gait and regarded Tony with a look that made him feel incredibly incompetent. "Then send an agent to their homes - get them here, Tony."  
  
08:59:58 . . . 08:59:59 . . . 09:00:00  
  
Death count = 1??? 


	2. 09:00 to 10:00

09:00:00  
  
Kimberly Bauer crosses her legs at the ankles under her chair. She pays careful attention to the officer in front of the group giving the briefing. Nina Myers pulls out of the bottom of Jack's road onto the highway. Jack Bauer tugs the shower door shut and drenches himself under the hot water. Tony Almeida heads towards the conference room to make himself and Connor a cup of coffee. The President sits in his office, perusing a document on domestic affairs, his mind far from the task at hand. Amir Halim opens the car boot and collects his suitcase, watching as his new colleague searches Reza's pockets.  
  
09:02:32 James Connor glanced up at his assistant Mia, as she placed a cup of coffee in front of him. He flicked the memo in front of him, opening another page momentarily before gravity won, and the page landed back on another. He let out a disapproving grunt and leant back in his chair. His staff instantly sprung to look at him.  
  
Mia realised it first, he was angry at being kept waiting, not at her, certainly not the coffee, and her oriental features softened, she tossed back some hair and returned to her own paper work. Connor's two male aides, sensing her easiness returned to their own work in turn, and allowed themselves to calm a bit. "This can't wait; we need to get to San Francisco." Connor announced with a start. "Michael, get Tony."  
  
The young man reached for the phone a few feet from his right. He keyed in the extension number that was typically given to the man holding Tony's hierarchical position and summoned him into the room when he answered.  
  
Mia tuned his voice out. "You don't want to wait for Jack Bauer?" She asked quietly.  
  
Connor's other male aide tried to remain perfectly still, he didn't wish to acknowledge the fact that Mia had just questioned their boss, but he had to lend her credit to her knowledge of his intentions.  
  
"No." He replied, simply - having not taken any offence to her question.  
  
Tony walked through the open conference room door. "Sir?"  
  
"I want to brief the staff at ten past, get them all in here." Connor ordered. Tony nodded, "Where do we stand on Jack and Nina?"  
  
"There's a squad car enroute to Jack's house at the moment, one has checked Nina's already - she wasn't answering, but her car isn't there either." Tony replied, hoping Connor would presume she was on her way into work without asking the next logical question.  
  
He was out of luck: "So she's presumably on the way in, and not answering her cell.what time was she due to start today?"  
  
"Nine." Tony replied.  
  
"So she's late." Connor muttered. He glanced over at his staff; they'd all resumed their duties and were pretending to be oblivious to the conversation around them. "Odd that she's not here and yet you are, my understanding was that you two are normally late together."  
  
09:06:42 "Bauer, Kimberly." Called one of the Sergeants manning the desk. Kimberly stepped out of the line and went up to the woman who'd called her name, she was just shorter than her, but her neck was probably as thick as Kim's waist. This was a part of being an air force officer she was not looking forward to. "Small," the woman yelled, looking at Kim with an evil glare. "Shoe size?" She growled.  
  
Kim answered her, pressing her lips together as the woman continued to stare at her. She began to feel nervous.  
  
Finally a khaki uniform was dumped on the table in front of her. "You'll need to tie that hair back." The woman grunted. Kim nodded and then reached out to take the uniform. The woman slapped a pair of regulation boots on top of the pile, Kimberly jerked her hand away, almost in time, the heel of the boot came down on the nail of her middle finger, but the rest of her digits were saved.  
  
09:10:09 Tony watched as three more agents came in, they were all from ITS, at the other side of the building, and Daryl shut the door behind him. "That the last from your department, Daryl?" Tony asked.  
  
The guy nodded, his glasses shaking slightly out of time with his head. Half the agents that worked at CTU were present, he'd excused several to keep working, some who came in at 10 and some, like Jack and Nina who he hadn't contacted, or who he wouldn't be able to bring in on time. The conference room was a little packed, but some of their best people were in the room, so he hoped Connor wouldn't mind.  
  
"Great, then we'll begin." Connor announced, nodding lightly at Mia, who was manning the CTU laptop they'd connected to the wide screen television. Mia brought up a few dossiers, all marked top secret. A picture of two men talking in a grocery store opened on the screen.  
  
"Yesterday afternoon, at a market in Al-Hakut, Kafir Mari and this man met. An undercover Navy Seal was working the meeting, and CTU and CIA operatives were across the street, and they recorded the conversation." Mia clicked through an assortment of surveillance pictures, all of the conversation.  
  
"Translators at the DoD worked on the conversation over night - In it, Mari is given his final orders for an act of terrorism, a bomb, believed to be detonated at a military target within the United States." Connor paused here, allowing the words to sink in as to the gravity of the situation.  
  
"Mari's not to be reckoned with, it's believed that he and his boss masterminded the explosion of the aircraft carrying Hassam, and that it was one of their operatives that was arrested in Texas trying to kill Senator Davies last year." Connor reminded them.  
  
"Is there anything more specific on the target?" Tony inquired; bending further forward over the chair he was leant on, Alicia was bent forward in the seat, so she barely felt the movement of the back support.  
  
"Western Seaboard." Mia answered him.  
  
Tony nodded grimly. "Do they give any information on the nature of the bomb? On the type of device we should expect? Do we know what Mari's cell have access to?"  
  
09:14:23 Nina noticed the emptiness of the room as she walked in, but proceeded warily to her desk. Her anxiety was displaced a little when she noticed some workers over in one section and heard a few voices in the conference room, before she could see what was going on she bent down in front of her desk and let the papers slide onto the counter top, and then pulled her arm slowly out from under it. She shook her jacket out over the back of her chair, and spun it so she could sit down. Nina typed her log in information onto her computer and then grabbed the handset of her phone. She hit the button to replay her answer phone messages.  
  
"You have fourteen new messages." Tony slid onto the desk next to her elbow and she pulled the phone away from her ear, she could replay the message. Tony's morning statement of affection or his questioning about an evening in the future wouldn't wait.  
  
"Yes, Tony?" She asked, impatiently.  
  
"Where were you this morning?" He asked her, dividing his eyes between her and the door to the conference room, he wanted to talk to her before Connor got out of there.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
Nina never directly answered his questions. "I tried to call you at least ten times." He muttered.  
  
Nina stood and began sorting the stack of papers she'd brought in with her this morning. "I was on my way to work." She retorted, halving the stack. It was heavy and she was having difficulty.  
  
"I called your cell." Nina stopped and scowled. She reached into her handbag and collected her phone. She turned it on and the phone bleeped into action, displaying 'You have voice mail' on the screen.  
  
"Sorry, it was off."  
  
"Yeah, well, Connor wants to see you." Tony relented, noticing their superior exit the briefing room, he was talking to his aides, but he'd notice Nina in a few seconds, and would ask her to come over. "We couldn't reach either you or Jack - there's a situation."  
  
"What kind of situation?" Nina asked, gripping the top of her chair.  
  
"Nina?" A polite female voice spoke from behind her.  
  
Nina turned, it was Mia, standing behind her, Connor glanced over, he was half way up the stairs to Jack's office. "AD Connor would like to brief you on the current situation, are you available now?"  
  
It wasn't really a question when Connor had phrased it to Mia, but the way this woman put it, it was almost as though she could decline - Mia could probably present whatever answer she gave in a manner that would please Connor. She almost admired this woman's skill. "Yeah." Nina glanced up as she saw Connor's aides shut the door behind their boss.  
  
Nina turned to Tony. "I want you to brief me on what everyone's got when I get back down."  
  
Tony nodded and Mia took a step towards the stairs, Nina followed her a few foot behind.  
  
09:16:54 "I asked to speak with Director Dorfman." Palmer said as a thirty something man walked into the room. He carried a metallic briefcase and wore a black suit with a black tie. He was a government agent.  
  
Palmer rounded the desk to stand between the two head armchairs, watching his guest as he introduced himself and walked the length of the long red striped couches that surrounded the carpet in the oval office. "Yes sir, Director Dorfman received a conference call from an intelligence agent in the field; he decided to answer the call himself so as to obtain the information first hand for a later meeting with you. He sends his apologies."  
  
"I assume you're completely briefed." Palmer commented, the man nodded an unnecessary reply, "Very well, have a seat."  
  
The man took a seat on the couch and Palmer took one of the armchairs, watching the man open his briefcase. "These are the transcripts from the conversation, sir, and the English translation." He passed the Commander- In-Chief a folder, exposing the titanium communications enhanced notebook computer in his case. "As you can see, Mari and his associate do not clearly refer to the act to take place, however they use the code words, Mari refers to his actions as crucial which we know is how their cell describes immediate terrorist action - to occur within the next few days."  
  
"Do we know who his associate is?" Palmer asked, glancing at the dossier photos, the one they had provided of the second man was not very clear, and had no name attached.  
  
"No, sir - I'm afraid his disguise marked many of the necessary distinguishing lines of the face, our agents are currently working with the entire footage of the view to obtain footage of him, however it may be that this is a man we haven't encountered before sir."  
  
There was a knock at the door behind him and he turned briefly as Lynn Kresgy walked in, quickly taking a seat at his side on the sofa. He passed her a manila folder to look through.  
  
09:18:35 Amir collected the last of the containers from his suitcase and slotted them into their holding places. "Amir!" Called the driver. He had opened the door at the back of the lorry and walked in, bringing in a gust of dusty wind with him.  
  
"What is it?" Amir muttered, zipping up the suitcase and pushing it under a sofa. The driver spoke a dialect from the north of Qumar; it was quite different to his own language, his name sounded almost unrecognisable.  
  
"We need to get back on the road; we have to meet up with the others."  
  
The driver carried the clothing from the man outside, pulling the suitcase out from under the chair and pushing the clothes under in its place. Amir watched the man undoing the simplest of tasks and was enraged. He gritted his teeth, he didn't say anything.  
  
The driver took the suitcase and tossed it out the back door. "Secure everything. I don't want to be dumping this stuff around the back of the van whilst you work."  
  
"That's right!" Amir called as the driver gripped the back door handle. "I'll be working.So don't drive like a maniac."  
  
The driver slammed the door to the back behind him and Amir heard the outside lock turn.  
  
09:22:34 "Where are you?" Nina asked the stress of the situation evident in her voice.  
  
"I'm on the Interstate, on my way in." Jack replied, changing lanes. He was talking to Nina on his cell phone, she'd called a minute ago, and he'd been unable to reach the phone - he'd retrieved the small device from the glove box when stopped at a traffic light, and he'd called her back when he'd noticed the number. That was not the greeting he'd expected.  
  
"Well how far away are you?" Nina was walking through the bowels of CTU, the corridors under his office, clutching her phone and for the moment, avoiding being briefed by personnel.  
  
"Fifteen minutes, with this traffic. Everything ok?" He asked, wincing at the Rush hour mash.  
  
"Connor is here - there's a situation, Jack." Nina replied. She noticed Tony approaching out the corner of her eye and headed to her desk at a faster pace than he, hoping to arrive and have a few seconds to converse with Jack out of ear reach.  
  
"Have you been briefed?" Jack inquired.  
  
"Yeah, but." She tapped on her computer, "This isn't a secure line."  
  
Jack nodded in the car. "Ok, well I shouldn't be long, I want a briefing as soon as I get in - everything Connor gave you, everything you've gathered."  
  
"Ok, but Jack."  
  
"I know, I'll get there as soon as I can." Jack consoled, he heard Nina sigh on the other end of the phone, and wondered if she'd been about to say anything else. "Look, Nina, about this morning -"  
  
She cut him off, "Jack, this isn't a secure line."  
  
She was avoiding, he knew it. "Let me know what you got when I get it." He said after a pregnant pause.  
  
Nina flicked her phone shut. She knew Tony had been behind her longer than she'd hoped. "What that Jack?" He asked her.  
  
"Yeah, he's stuck in traffic, he knows it's urgent, he'll be in as soon as he can." She would have walked away from him, but she needed briefing.  
  
09:26:21 "Look I'm telling you - It was amazing, she was amazing. You should have been there, dad." Keith was reporting on the night before. Nicole and He had gone out to the symphony together, and Keith seemed taken with the evening.  
  
"She?" Palmer asked, over his cup of coffee. He took a sip of the bitter liquid.  
  
"The principal cellist, the first cellist? Katya." Commented Nicole. She smirked at her brother. "We went and talked to the orchestra after the performance."  
  
"Secret Service probably weren't that happy about that." David Palmer muttered.  
  
Nicole laughed. "My big brother was in love," she sung the statement; "I had to get him to meet her."  
  
"Dad, you should have heard the Cello Sonata, it was." Keith silenced as his father's aide approached the table. He watched as the young man whispered in his father's ear.  
  
Palmer rose from the table and headed towards Lynn who was standing at the door to the breakfast room, he patted his son on the shoulder, to show he'd noticed the boy's sudden silence. "Lynn?" He queried.  
  
"Sorry to interrupt your breakfast, Mr President." She apologised.  
  
"It's fine," he muttered, "What's on your mind?"  
  
"The British Ambassador requested some time with you - he says it's extremely urgent." She told him.  
  
"Did he give you any indication what about?" Palmer queried, he looked Lynn in the eye and he got a pretty good idea.  
  
"None directly, sir." She replied, "He's on his way over. I've scheduled him for quarter to in the Mural Room." She glanced at the breakfast table and his two joking children. "I'm sorry it will have to cut your breakfast short, sir."  
  
Palmer nodded, bracing a hand against the wall, he was already feeling like a bad father, a meeting with the Vice President had run over last night, and this was why he hadn't accompanied his children to the Symphony. "I've already eaten - I was just having a cup of coffee with the kids." He headed back into the room, into the brilliant sunlight from the windows. "So.you were telling me about the Sonata?"  
  
"It was incredible."  
  
09:30:57 Kimberly glanced around the room at the team, there were five of them and each wearing green bibs, with the letter 'E' and then the number they'd been assigned. Kimberly wore the number '1' because of her alphabetical surname. In front of them sat three officers, the review board. They quietly talked through the exercises, and then they spoke to their potential cadets. "Echo One, you will take the first exercise. Please lead your team as you feel fit."  
  
A half hour of briefing had taught her what to say, that and a little coaching from her dad before she left. She nodded to the Lieutenant who'd addressed her and rose to her feet. "Echo team, I will be your leader for this exercise. I am going to evaluate the exercise and devise a provisional plan, and then I shall summon you and we will complete the task together. Sit tight." She followed the officer out the door and along the corridor.  
  
"You nervous?" He asked her.  
  
"Oh yeah." Kimberly commented.  
  
He swiped his key card and let her into the room at the end of the corridor. She was led into a cubicle where she was confronted by two oil drums, painted black, a tyre swing, a plank of wood and a bucket. They were all painted black, white or blue. "You ready for the rules?" He asked.  
  
Kimberly came full circle and looked at her commander. "Yes sir."  
  
09:33:34 Daryl turned to face his third computer screen as he finished setting the commands for the first two. They'd each need a bit of time, meanwhile his floating terminal was open, and his phone was ringing.  
  
Daryl collected the phone from the cradle with a sigh, and then muttered his surname "Hannah?"  
  
"Hey, Daryl, I need you to run a few pictures onto my screen for me." It was Tony Almeida.  
  
"There were a few place names mentioned in the conversation in Hakut, I need you to send me satellite photos of the area, I need to know what there are there, terrorist training camps, weapon's dumps, military bases, anything interesting."  
  
"Yeah, I'll download what I can from the satellites - but they're going to be pretty chocked up. Lot's of recalls right now." Commented Daryl.  
  
"Sure, just get me what you can." Tony hung up, there was a group of senior agents who'd stopped saying 'goodbye' and 'thanks' simply disconnecting at the end of a phone call. Daryl wondered if he could pull that off.  
  
09:37:13 Nina's eyes sprung up from her monitor as Jack walked in the door, reacting to some kind of sixth sense that told her he was there, when he was watching her - she felt him enter the room. She sprung to her feet and gathered some papers, heading over to meet him and walk back to her desk with him, possibly up the stairs to his office, currently ruled by Connor.  
  
"Jack." She began.  
  
"Status report?" He queried, looking at her hands.  
  
"Data we've gathered so far." She told him, "It's not much."  
  
He nodded, "So what's going on?"  
  
"There's a bomb in play - somewhere on the Western Seaboard, probably at a military target." Nina summarised quickly.  
  
Jack headed up the staircase to his office; Nina trotted a step behind, close, talking to him quietly. "Do we know who?"  
  
"Mari's cell." Nina replied.  
  
"Kafir Mari?" Jack paused on the stairs and looked at her gravely.  
  
Nina took the last step up, hoping to meet his gaze more evenly. "Yeah, from Qumar." Nina replied, reaching a hand behind her to touch the handle of his office door. She felt his proximity as he felt anxious about the terrorist threat, and so Nina turned the handle behind her and they spilled out of the corridor space and into the office.  
  
Connor had made himself at home on Jack's couch as he'd had the decency to leave the man his desk. Mia was the only one of his aides that had entered the office in the last hour, and Nina had no doubt that she was probably the only one that made a regular appearance in his office at division. Connor was a lion, and she was the only decent tamer.  
  
"Jack," Connor stood to shake Jack's hand, and then settled back down into the couch to work on his lap top. "I trust Nina's given you the basic intel?"  
  
Jack nodded, logging onto his computer: "Yeah, but I have a bit of information you may not have." Jack's computer whirred into action, and he selected a few files. "When Mason and I went to Tunisia to make that connection with the Right Way, we met a man who claimed to have been part of an incursion run by Mari, and to have escaped the clean up." Jack walked across the room and powered up the large monitor in front of his locker. Schematics of a submarine appeared on the screen, whirring and rotating, with the various sections being highlighted in turn.  
  
"Nina, can you click on the reactor." Jack was taking off his coat and depositing it in his locker. Nina dropped her papers on the desk and clicked on the relevant screen section, hovering over his chair, not wanting to sit down in it. "This is the Russian submarine, Hargitay - the Russian claim it was de-commissioned however when the UN inspectors went in they saw no sign of the Hargitay, and a selection of undercover policemen discovered the crew's family never heard from the crew again."  
  
"And you believe that Mari and his cell took the submarine and killed the officers?" Connor concluded.  
  
"Yes," Jack replied, having shut his locker and now perching beside the large flat screen monitor. "I believe the submarine is sitting on the bottom of the red sea or the Mediterranean, but it was fuelled by a nuclear reactor."  
  
Jack could see Nina's mouth open in shock at the idea. "Why didn't the Russians make a big deal out of this?"  
  
"The politicians may have changed, but a lot of the military personnel have been there for twenty years, and the sergeants during the cold war are the generals now, or then, this was nearly five years ago." Jack finished his explanation, observing Connor's reaction.  
  
"Did you file any information on this?" He asked.  
  
"Yes, at the time we filed a full report on our conversation with the operative." Jack informed him.  
  
"Mia, memo this to the other divisions." Connor ordered.  
  
09:43:23 "When did he get here?" Palmer asked as his personal aide walked him back from the residence.  
  
"Maybe five minutes sir, I came to get you as soon as he arrived." The young man replied. They walked under the veranda along the edge of the Rose Garden, and then through the Glass doors and into the Oval Office. They left it quickly, into the annex for his secretary and he glanced in Lynn, the chief of Staff's office, open and empty.  
  
"Will Lynn be joining us?" He asked, as they crossed the corridor.  
  
He muttered 'Good morning' to a few employees as he heard them call it to him, and waited for his aide to open the door for him. "Yes, she's talking to him now."  
  
The sun shone through the windows and illuminated the beautifully painted walls, it also illuminated the couch the Ambassador had chosen to sit on, rather than the one Lynn had chosen, the light wouldn't be in his eyes. He happily greeted the man, and gestured that they sit.  
  
"How are your children faring, Mr President?" The British Ambassador was in his sixties, a grandfather, many, many times over, and David knew he had a propensity to procrastinate, especially on the topic of offspring.  
  
"Well George, but I'd hardly call them children anymore, my son was just telling me about a musician he's infatuated with over breakfast." They both laughed, but David's subsided earlier. "But Mr Ambassador, you didn't come to talk to me about my children.what's going on?"  
  
09:48:03 "Right Echo team," began the Lieutenant. He wasn't really marking them, this guy was just announcing and interfacing with them, they'd been assured that there were only two officers that would be marking them, and he wasn't one of them.they hoped. "Let's see what Feedback you've got for Echo One on her performance, and for the review panel your critical evaluation skills."  
  
They were sat on a bench inside a little wooden booth, watching as their markers stood at a distance. "Why don't we start with your evaluation One, how do you feel you did?"  
  
Kimberly rose to her feet and took a quick glance at the officers, it was a bold choice, but this was her team, and she was supposed to be only accountable to her team - this is what her father had said, so she turned her back on her markers and stood solely facing her team. "I'll start with my plan - I think it was a solid idea, in principle - however I didn't evaluate the length of the plank and hence the distance involved in the final leap."  
  
James glanced up at the cat walk, he momentarily tuned out Kimberly's words, watching as four other officers entered and made their way down the stairs, they approached the General who was part of their review panel and began talking quietly with him. This wasn't fair, they were only supposed to be judge by these two, why were these extra men, here.  
  
The interface officer noticed Echo Two's wandering eyes and glanced behind himself at the meeting taking place, James corrected his glance back to Kimberly who was now looking at him for support. ".I realise I was resilient to it at first, but I'm glad I was able to appreciate your input Echo four."  
  
Echo Four nodded ascent.  
  
"I think it was a great success getting four of us to the finish line, and so overall I think the team did well." Kimberly stood. "Does anyone have any questions or queries?" - general nodding and muttered 'no's. Kimberly sat down again.  
  
James rose to his feet and turned to face the team, not his team until the next game. He noticed the four intruding officers leave out of the corner of his eye.  
  
09:52:43 Amir was grateful the driver was a smoker, his rampant intake of water on the plane, worried that the drinks of the night before would affect his work today had lead to his over hydration, and now the incredible pressure on his bladder. He would hate for the truck to smell of human urine, especially as he had to spend a long time in it still, and the smell of aerosol was already getting to him.  
  
The driver walked around to stand in the shadow of the Heavy Goods Vehicle, and lit up his cigarette. He watched the air condensing over the desert, the faint blurred lines on the horizon.  
  
Amir grunted at the man and walked around the other side of the truck. Looked like he was going to have to pee in the terrible sunshine.  
  
09:57:04 Connor folded up his briefcase and opened the door to the floor below. Mia passed the briefcase to the aides at the door and lingered in the doorway as one accepted. The man walked down the stairs, headed towards the helipad, nearly to be knocked over by Nina as she sprinted up the stairs to the office.  
  
Nina held a printed email, firmly gripped between her thumb and fingers of her right hand. "Jack!" she called when she got to the top, pushing past Mia and walking clear past Connor to present the paper to Jack.  
  
Her phone was clenched in her left hand. "I just got off the phone with British Intelligence." She told him.  
  
"What's that?" Connor asked, referring to the paper.  
  
"It's an email from the CIA, this morning in Manchester, there was an explosion at a police station, two suspects were being detained for involving themselves with terrorist organisations." Nina reported.  
  
"10 police officers were killed, and the suspects escaped." Jack reported from a news report he'd heard on the radio in the car, or possibly at home on the television.  
  
"We just stamped one of their passports, point of entry, San Francisco." Nina relented.  
  
09:59:58.09:59:59.10:00:00 


End file.
